For second time in 10 days, Muir Woods residents in Mobile celebrate victory over cell tower defeat

Some cell towers are camouflaged as a tree, and AT&T pushed for the same type of structure near the Muir Woods subdivision in Mobile, Ala. The city's Zoning Board of Adjustments voted against the company's request on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014, and the Planning Commission shot it down on Jan. 16, 2014. (file photo)

MOBILE, Alabama – For the second time in 10 days, Muir Woods
residents celebrated a victory at Government Plaza after the Mobile Planning
Commission voted down a request to build a cell tower near their subdivision.

The commission, with a 6-3 vote, denied a request from
AT&T to erect a 135-foot-tall cell tower at 6311 Cottage Hill Road. Voting against
the approval were commissioners Bill DeMouy, Victoria Rivizzigno, Terry
Plauche, Roosevelt Turner, Scott Webster and Don Hembree. Voting in favor of
the tower were John Williams, Carlos Grant, and James Watkins.

Andy Rotenstreich, an attorney with AT&T, said he will
consult with the cell phone carrier on whether to appeal the decisions, but
said that he might pursue action in federal court. "We haven't made that
decision," he said.

For residents, the decisions ended months of pleas to public
officials to deny the request based on concerns that the cell tower could
impact their property values and that the tower – camouflaged as a tree – would
be unsightly.

Also, 51 or 52 households in the neighborhood signed a
petition against the tower.

Rotenstreich attempted to convince both bodies that AT&T
could not co-locate its services on any of the existing cell towers located
nearby. He said an engineering firm, hired by AT&T, examined the area and
determined the only adequate way to provide service was to build a new tower.

Three locations were considered – Publix, Mobile Christian
Academy, and the Connie Hudson Senior Center – but they none were able to meet
AT&T's "engineering requirements."

But AT&T was the only entity to conduct a coverage
study. The city does not have resources to seek an independent analysis.

B.J. Lyon, a representative for the Muir Woods subdivision,
said the residential backlash against the AT&T tower might have raised
enough concerns among city officials to seek more than just one source of a
study that is provided by the project's developer.